Offense of the Hard-hearted

“…the hearts of the people began to wax hard, and that they began to be offended because of the strictness of the word…”

I was listening to Alma 35 this morning on my way to work and this line stuck out to me. In today’s understanding the heart is more of a feeling thing, we distinguish it from the thinking done by the brain. We find the word leb translated as heart often in the Bible, it’s from lebab which is the organ in the middle of your chest.

Anciently the heart wasn’t just for feeling, leb means, “very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect; likewise for the center of anything.” So with the Nephites, their feelings, wills, and intellects were waxing (growing or passing from one state to another) hard, and they were beginning to be offended because the word was strict (or accurate; exact).

Twice we get the sense that this was gradual, it happened over time. The strictness, exactness, accurateness of the word did not offend them at one point, it didn’t until their feelings, wills, and intellects became hard and unbending.